Member Article

Enhanced team for Airport City Manchester

Airport City Manchester, one of the UK’s largest commercial development projects, has announced the creation of an in-house Development Management Team to oversee the next phases of the development project and has begun the search for a Managing Director and a Sales and Marketing Director.

Argent, appointed to support Airport City Manchester in its initial phases of land assembly, business planning and place-making, has now completed its scope of work. With all the land now acquired and clear financial, marketing and delivery plans in place, the Airport City project continues to grow in strength.

As one of the UK’s largest joint venture commercial development projects, Airport City Manchester sits adjacent to Manchester Airport and will generate huge economic benefits to Greater Manchester and the wider northern region, through the creation of five million square feet of premium office space, hotels, advanced manufacturing, logistics facilities and ancillary retail.

The enhanced team will oversee the circa £1billion development and report directly into the joint venture board, comprising representatives of the international, national and regional partners.

Part of the Manchester Enterprise Zone, Airport City Manchester is a joint venture between Manchester Airports Group (MAG), Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG), Carillion PLC, and the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF).

The project is already proving to be an important component of the Northern Powerhouse initiative, providing the potential to attract millions of pounds worth of investment. With new transport investment recently announced for Northern Rail and TransPennine routes, including direct links to Manchester Airport from Newcastle and Bradford, the scheme is also expected to play a key role in the future success of the Northern Powerhouse.

Simon Eastwood, managing director at Carillion Developments, said: “We have now reached an important phase of the project, we are on-site delivering infrastructure and during 2016 we will begin to bring forward the first new buildings on Airport City North.

“Our preliminary arrangement, with Argent, has served the project well by preparing an ambitious and workable masterplan and delivering effective collaboration between the partners and a multi-disciplinary team of respected professionals.”

BCEG director, Lau Yew Cheong, said: “This year is shaping up to be a very significant one for Airport City. The enterprise zone is already creating jobs and attracting high profile firms, including Amazon, which is moving to Global Logistics. We are seeing increased levels of interest and are building our joint-venture team to deal with the requirements of the next phase of the development.”

Lynda Shillaw, MAG Property CEO, said: “Building upon the very positive momentum achieved to date, we are stepping up our focus on deals. The many attributes of the location and scheme are certainly resonating with prospective occupiers and investors. We are excited to be attracting serious interest and gearing up accordingly to advance scheme delivery.”

David Partridge, Managing Partner at Argent, said “We are happy to have supported the Airport City Joint Venture through its early years and to have established a sound platform from which the scheme can continue to develop. We look forward to the continued success of the venture, which is undoubtedly one of the most important developments within the Northern Powerhouse”.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Liz Hands .